Author: 김세화 연구원

The nation’s largest public pension fund is moving to extend its foothold in the private markets and continue its push into low-cost investments with higher returns. The investment committee of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, with around $491 billion under management, voted to increase its private equity and private debt allocations Monday. The new plan increased its PE allocation target to 17%, up four percentage points from its previous target. The plan’s new private debt target is 8%, up from 5%. This recalibration will increase the fund’s total private market…

Taiwan needs to build soft power, generating attraction to its values, ideas and culture to overcome disabling international challenges confronting President-elect Lai Ching-te. Proactive external communications can help the new government increase global awareness, gain sympathy and win support from the international community. Various initiatives have been devoted to this cause, such as opening Taiwan Academies abroad to promote traditional Chinese culture, investing in gastrodiplomacy to introduce Taiwanese cuisines to the world, setting up Sinology resource centres to increase the exposure of Taiwanese research and initiating a semiconductor study program to attract overseas talent. Throughout its time in…

As geopolitical tensions and concerns about the environment deepened, APEC’s 2023 agenda focused on fostering sustainable and inclusive development, highlighting its pivotal role as a forum for constructive discussion to promote international cooperation. The question, however, was whether APEC, built on the voluntary commitment of Asia Pacific economies to cooperate in managing their large common ambitions for open, sustainable regional development, could straddle the political and other fissures that were dividing its members.    The fractious atmospherics surrounding the San Francisco summit underscored this question. Outside the Moscone Centre where…

president Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un exchanged threats of nuclear war and North Korea tested its first long-range missile capable of reaching the United States. On 16 January 2024, Kim ordered a change to the country’s constitution — a document of unclear utility in an Orwellian personality cult — so that peaceful unification of North and South Korea was stricken from official policy. Party officials must also eliminate or downsize agencies and organisations related to inter-Korean relations, pointing to long-term institutional changes to all inter-Korean issues. Kim’s…

Japan’s population began to decline after peaking at 128 million in 2008, registering 125 million in 2022. If this trend continues, Japan’s population is projected to decline to 63 million in 2100, half of its population in 2022. Behind the trend lies Japan’s declining birth rate. Japan’s birth rate declined from 9.5 births per 1000 women in 2000 to 6.8 per 1000 in 2020. A declining population and birth rate coupled with long life expectancy have resulted in an aging population. The proportion of the population aged over 65 increased from 17.4…

Middle powers such as Australia and Japan have leveraged minilateral relationships to achieve shared security and economic objectives. But since the minilateralism pursued by Canberra and Tokyo has largely been a response to the rise of China, this raises the question of how Beijing practices minilateralism and what this might reveal about the effectiveness of the Japanese and Australian approach. The appeal of China’s approach in the Global South should give Canberra and Tokyo pause. Australian and Japanese minilateralism, while containing governance and economic elements, is widely perceived as being…

Oishii, an indoor vertical grower of organic strawberries and tomatoes using Japanese-rooted farming methods, has closed a $134 million equity up round led by Japanese telecommunications company NTT. The Series B, which is far larger than Oishii’s $50 million Series A in 2019, defies the VC pullback from vertical farming and includes participation from prominent foodtech investors like Bloom8. New Jersey-based Oishii, which is not yet profitable, sells designer strawberries at multiple Whole Foods Markets locations at a significant premium to conventionally grown berries. A tray of its “Koyo” berries, which is…

Historically, South Korea has been more of an importer of transnational higher education than an exporter. This is exemplified by the array of international university branch campuses at the Incheon Global Campus. South Korea’s foray into establishing a global higher education presence commenced in earnest only after 1995, when the concept of ‘education as a service’ was formalised following the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Since 2006, the South Korean government has pursued policies to elevate the global standing of its higher education sector. Initial efforts were centred around…

If re-elected, Donald Trump has promised a 10 per cent tariff on all goods coming into the United States — a tax on imports — and a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods. That’s not quite the shock to the system of the US Smoot-Hawley tariffs of close to 20 per cent that exacerbated and prolonged the Great Depression in the 1930s, but it’s very close. What made things worse in the 1930s was the retaliation from much of the rest of the world, ratcheting up tariffs and restrictions…

After expanding by 2.6 per cent in 2022, South Korea’s economy cooled in 2023. Waning global demand for South Korean exports, continuing geopolitical challenges and weakening domestic demand saw growth decelerate to an estimated 1.4 per cent. While economic growth is expected to pick up in 2024, over the long term South Korean economic growth will be weighed down by structural challenges from the country’s changing demographics. Heavily dependent on trade for economic growth, South Korea saw exports and imports decline in 2023. Exports finished down 7.4 per cent with only exports of automotives…

The systematic implementation of Japan’s Tourism Strategy by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has positioned Japan as a global tourism hub, drawing millions of visitors annually to its cultural and natural landmarks. The tourist influx into major centres like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto has intensified concentration of tourists and there are growing calls that there are just too many.  In response, the Sustainable Tourism Promotion Headquarters released a policy document Towards a Sustainable Tourism Developed Country in 2018. The guidelines propose four key measures for achieving sustainable tourism development —…

Vietnam’s economy emerged from COVID-19 with a surprisingly high 8 per cent annual growth rate at the end of 2022, but took a gloomy U-turn in the first half of 2023, plagued by falling exports due to monetary tightening in the developed world and a slow post-pandemic recovery in China. Exports were down 12 per cent on-year, trailing off to around 6 per cent towards the latter half of the year. The industrial production index had negative growth of 15 per cent early in 2023 but ended the year with a…

Human trafficking is a global, non-traditional security threat, affecting nearly 50 million individuals in 2021. This issue is especially prominent for ASEAN countries, where forced migration is exacerbated by conflict and climate vulnerabilities, the prevalence of drug trafficking networks, complex governance issues, porous borders and weak immigration controls. ASEAN countries simultaneously serve as a field for trafficking practices and a target for global trafficking operations. Data collected by the International Organization for Migration since 2002 identifies 10,045 trafficked persons across ASEAN countries, including Timor-Leste. Meanwhile, 24,707 ASEAN citizens are victims of human traffickers worldwide, exposing the vulnerability of Southeast Asian…

As the 2024 Indonesian presidential election heated up, the country’s electoral commission hosted the third round of five presidential candidates’ debates on 7 January, focussing on foreign policy and national security. The South China Sea was one of the most important points discussed. The South China Sea dispute has become one of Indonesia’s most important security issues. It is the only hot spot where there is a potential for military clashes with foreign countries. Considering what happened with the Philippines in December 2023, it seems China will maintain its assertive behaviour…

Reading some of the news headlines of recent weeks, driven by a refinancing bonanza and a return of dividend recaps, it has almost been possible to imagine we were back in a different time. One where money was easy to come by and PE firms could handily generate returns. However, while improved conditions in the leveraged debt markets may have given squeezed PE firms some respite in recent weeks, investors should not expect the cost of finance to be reduced significantly or dependably in the short term. PE firms should…

The Lincoln Private Market Index (LPMI), which tracks the enterprise value of privately held companies in the US, increased 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023, driven by cost-cutting measures which have offset weak revenue growth and declining multiples. Revenue growth of companies tracked by Lincoln declined for a fourth consecutive quarter, with 30% of companies reporting flat to negative results. Despite the headwinds, annualized EBITDA growth rates improved, from 4.2% in Q3 to 4.8% in Q4. “While revenue growth in the aggregate has slowed, portfolio companies are stemming the…

In April 2023, the Japanese government introduced a new policy offering 1 million yen (US$6770) per child to families who move out of greater Tokyo and relocate to rural areas of Japan, as part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Garden City Nation Project. The initiative is a response to Japan’s challenges with urbanisation in city centres and declining population and fertility rates as the country attempts to reverse its demographic decline. This new policy comes on top of existing relocation support incentives, which provides a subsidy of 1 million yen for individuals working…

Late-stagd back from new late-stage deals, according to PitchBook’s latest US VC Valuations Report. Late-stage startup valuations grew by a median of $6.6 million between funding rounds in 2023, down 61.6% year-over-year. For venture growth, value creation was even slower: Valuations grew by a median of $2.4 million between rounds. The relative velocity of value creation, or the annual percentage change in valuation between rounds, fell from 44.8% to 14.5% for late-stage startups and from 35.1% to a mere 2% for venture growth-stage companies last year. Stuck in second gear After…

The most significant event in Taiwan in 2023 was the presidential election campaign. Amid the dramatic campaign trail, the spotlight on the electoral spectacle has overshadowed other critical issues. In March 2023, Honduras switched diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China, becoming the ninth country in the past seven years to break official ties with Taiwan. This left Taiwan with only 13 remaining diplomatic allies in 2023, but it attracted minimal attention. After scandals eliminated other potential candidates, Vice President Lai Ching-te emerged as the sole nominee for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)…

Though North Korea had yet to fully resume its pre-pandemic activities by the end of the year, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un celebrated major successes in safeguarding and strengthening North Korea and the Kim family dynasty in 2023. In so doing, Kim appears to have set a course to generate more tensions in 2024. There was an apparent successful launch of a North Korean satellite in November 2023 following two failed attempts. International summits and accompanying military exchanges with Russia resumed. 2023 saw the public emergence of Kim’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae,…